and it’s far too early on in the winter to be starting with all this snow and travel disruption nonsense. Inspired by Thomas MacEntee’s great Destination: Austin Family post on Thanksgiving where he related various family names to Thanksgiving menu items, I thought I’d try to identify some winter-related names in the Scottish records. Well, I wasn’t going to be venturing far… these are all genuine surnames found in the records for Scotland.

There were 70 babies baptised between 1538 and 1854 with the surname Snow. In 1901, there were 84 people called Snow living in Scotland. 483 men called Crystal (or a variant of the name) were married between 1855 and 2009, and no, none of them married a lady called Snow. In the same period, one person called Ice got married, but not to a Snow or a Crystal. According to the Census Returns, we have no Drifts at all, and only 3 Flakes in 1851, however that is debateable in my opinion.

We occasionally have Thunder (3 ladies with this name married between 1855 and 2000) and Lightning (5 men with this name married in the same period). Sadly, no Thunders married a Lightning.

Between 1855 and 1955, three people called Chill died in Scotland, but there were no Chills at all in Scotland in 1861 (I am surprised). We have a lot of sleet in Scotland, and there were 36 Sleets/Sleats born between 1855 and 2009. Add to that the Rain (130) and Wind (19), and the whopping amount of Frost (975) and you begin to get an accurate picture of our weather. Hail accounts for 41 of the ladies who were married between 1925 and 2000 and Showers for one man who married in 1944, but he didn’t marry a Hail. Or a Rain. Or a Snow. As we know, poor weather conditions leads to travel problems and we have a Skid in the 1891 Census, and 4 Bumps, 5 Dings and 60 Deaths were born between 1855 and 2009, but thankfully no Injuries were reported, although 24 Hurts were born in that period.

I can, happily, report a little Sun (one baptised between 1722 and 1822) and there is a lot of Hope (1668 of them living in Scotland in 1891) that things will improve soon Soon (two men called Soon married between 1940 and 2009) so fingers crossed. I’m very hopeful as there were 2921 babies called Cross born between 1855 and 1955.